Five Top Tricks making space to achieve your working Treats…
Five Top Tricks making space to achieve your working Treats…
You’re a busy HR professional…
There’s always more to do….
There’s so much you want to achieve…
You have so many great ideas on ways to make improvements…
but you struggle to find the time and space!
Here’s my five top tricks this October to freeing up time in your calendar and making space in your working day so you can achieve your working Treats and add value to your organisation. And you’ll be pleased to know that I’m not advocating a 70-hour week or 5am starts!!
1) Turn off email notifications
It is well known that it can take time to recover from interruptions, get back to your work and regain your flow. And one of the most frequent interruptions are electronic notifications, in particular emails.
We can all feel that emails are urgent and need our attention straight away. Because they are delivered instantly, it can seem that an instant response is needed.
In reality, they can usually wait an hour or two and you can batch up your responses later in the day. And, by turning notifications off, you can maintain focus for longer on the tasks that really matter.
2) Manage meetings
You’ve received yet another meeting request and are trying to squeeze in the time in your calendar. Before you juggle the time and bookings, question if it is really necessary for the meeting and for you to attend. Can you delegate the meeting, can you send your apologies, can you politely decline the meeting?
Do you hold meetings with your team? Is the agenda still relevant or is it something that’s been used for months on end and you go through it on routine?
Can you approach meetings differently? How about sharing some updates ahead and assume they’ve been read when you get to the meeting so you only need time for queries? Why assume an hour, maybe schedule 45 minutes instead?
3) Block out time for critical tasks
You have your “To Do” list, you know what needs doing, but never seem to get to it. Block out some time in your calendar to get the work done, if necessary book a meeting room or go somewhere else in the office as if in a meeting. If you’re working from home, pop your Teams profile on “busy” to slow down interruptions.
Once you’ve set the time aside, it is critical to stick to it! So, ahead of the date, don’t agree bookings that clash with the time you’ve allocated. And, of course, on the day, use the time to do the work!
4) Be ruthless with your delegation (up and sideways as well as down)
Be realistic with new work landing in your inbox. Is it something that’s really your role or would it be better with someone else? Does it mean delegating to one of your team, either because it fits them better or for their own development? Or perhaps pushing back to the person requesting the work if its not your area. Remember its ok to say “no” sometimes.
And don’t forget, you can also delegate the work to a future you! In other words, be sensible about deadlines, not everything is as urgent as it might seem at first glance. It might be that leaving some tasks until later is the best way of managing your calendar today.
5) Move your usual distractions out of sight
We’ve all got them….Facebook, news pages, LinkedIn, the latest paperback, etc.
Whatever your distractions are, move them so they’re out of sight and you’re not triggered easily. For example, I’ve moved the apps I’m most likely to waste time on to the second page of my phone screen so they’re not immediately obvious. Or you could take your online distractions off your favourites list. However, you do it, make it tricky for yourself to get easily off track!
Finally, don’t forget, these tricks can work all year round, they are not just for Halloween!!
